The invention relates to methods and reagents for diagnosing, treating, and preventing neurodegeneration.
Loss of neurons by a degenerative process is a major pathological feature of many human neurological disorders. Neuronal cell death can occur as a result of a variety of conditions including traumatic injury, ischemia, neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), stroke, or trauma), or as a normal part of tissue development and maintenance. Several inherited disorders produce late onset neuron loss, each of which is highly specific for particular neural cell types. Nine genes have been cloned that are associated with susceptibility to these various neurological disorders (e.g., Huntington's disease, ataxin, and ALS); however, only in the case of Kennedy's syndrome is the biochemical function of the affected gene, the androgen receptor, understood (La Spada et al., Nature 352: 77-79, 1991). Epileptic seizures and stroke also produce neurodegeneration in humans and rodents.